Government Data About Searches of International Travelers' Laptops and Personal Electronic Devices

In response to the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking documents about the government’s policy of searching travelers’ laptops and cell phones at U.S. border crossings without suspicion of wrongdoing, the government has released thousands of pages of documents about the policy. The records reveal new information about how many devices have been searched, what happens to travelers’ files once they are in the government’s possession, and travelers’ complaints about how they are treated by border officials.

The ACLU's analysis of the documents reveals:

Between October 2008 and June 2010, over 6,500 people traveling to and from the United States had their electronic devices searched at the border. Nearly half of these people were U.S. citizens.

The devices the government searched included laptops, cell phones, cameras, hard drives, flash drives, and even DVDs.

Between October 2008 and June 2009, cell phones were the most commonly searched electronic devices, followed by laptops and digital cameras.

Between July 2008 and June 2009, border agents transferred data found on travelers' electronic devices to other federal agencies over 280 times. Half of the time, these unnamed agencies asserted an independent basis for retaining or seizing the data.

Below is an index with links to the documents received by the ACLU in response to our Laptop Search FOIA request.

Appendix B outlines the border search policy, Appendix C is a directive titled "Border Searches of Documents and Electronic Media," and Appendix D is a list of laws and regulations enforced by CBP. It is unclear to what these documents were originally appended.

Email with June 25, 2008 testimony of Jayson Ahern, Deputy Commissioner of CBP at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Laptop Searches and Other Violations of Privacy Faced by Americans Returning from Overseas Travel"